Nathan's 1st Day of Preschool!

Nathan started preschool today. He'll be going twice a week for 2 hours. It's a Co-Op preschool so parents are very much involved. He's 2 and parents are required to be with their 2 year old at every class. This works great for us because I need to be there "hovering" at every snacktime and that wouldn't work at a pre-school where parents don't go every day.

He did GREAT! I was really surprised at how well he did. There are only three 2 year olds. All the other kids are 3 and 4. We put him in pre-school for the social aspect. He hasn't had a lot of interaction with many other children so this will be great for him. He sat pretty still on my lap for a long story and calendar time. I was very pleased with how well he did! The kids same some songs that Nathan obviously can't join in with yet but he seemed very interested.

Then, it was snack time. Nathan was SO EXCITED to sit at those little tables. The students all had to wash their hands and he was pretty much last in line. (All the 3 and 4 year olds rushed to the front). I could tell he was SO nervous he wasn't going to get to sit in one of those little chairs since they were filling up quickly. There were just enough chairs though!

Snack time was a little sad for me. Probably sadder for me than Nathan. The teacher passed around oranges and apples for the kids which was no problem. Then she passed around brownies. Nathan got really excited and was reaching out his chubby little hand because he wanted one of those brownies. All the other kids at his table had one. I had to tell him they would make him sick and gave him some graham crackers instead. That was hard for me to see him not be able to take part in something he was so excited about.

Not being able to eat things that he wants doesn't really happen at home. I cook all meals so he can eat them. To see him not be able to eat the same thing as his peers was hard though. It's just the first time I've had it happen, but I just have to realize that this is just how it's going to be for him the rest of his life. Eventually, he'll just deal with it, but as a little guy, it's going to be tough.

The pre-school teacher told me if I wanted I could give a list of things he COULD eat to all parents so that all snacks brought in would be safe and he could partake in everything. I just didn't feel right about that though. His diet is SO limited and I didn't want to make all the other children only have crackers and fruit every single week. So I figure I'll bring a snack for him every day. If he can eat the snack provided or part of it, that's great. If he can't, I'll have something for him.

The only thing that made me nervous is sitting so close to all those kids with their crumbs. Most of the parents are right there though and they were so nice today about making sure they cleaned up their children's spots and I was able to keep Nathan away from that. I can't leave him alone though, but it worked out fine today so I'm sure it will work out fine in the future.

I think the only thing I'm going to request in terms of the "food allergy" special need is that all the students wash their hands AFTER snack as well so there is no cheese or egg residue on their hands. I don't think that's too much to ask.

So after snack, they made little tempera paint hand prints. Nathan made a HUGE mess. It was funny. Then they played with some balls and a parachute and had some final songs and went home. I think he had a lot of fun. I hope he continues to have fun every week! AND he didn't cling to me like I thought he would. During the independent play times he went out and played. Now he didn't actually PLAY with the other kids, but I noticed the other 2 years old and even some of the 3 year olds were just kind of playing on their own too.

It was a good morning! Next Wednesday, we take a field trip to the Spokane County Fair. Jeremy currently has Wednesdays off so he's going to come too! Nathan loves all the animals around here, so I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun there too!

*The picture at the top is Nathan with some fake fruit. He'll shove 2 plastic strawberries in his mouth just to ham it up. This picture makes me laugh every single time I see it!